US 2011/0101020 A1 discloses a dispensing apparatus for dispensing pre-cut wipe materials provided in the form of a stack of accordion pleated web material. The web material is pre-cut in order to define separable wipe products. This document discloses the dispenser as including a container providing a lower horizontal platform upon which a stack of web material rests during dispensing. When the container is to be refilled with a spare stack of web material, the existing stack of web material is moved so as to come into engagement with an upper horizontal surface and the spare stack of material is positioned behind the existing stack of material in the dispensing sequence. To ensure continuity between the stack of material which is presently in use and the spare stack of material when the material is pulled on by an operator, the two stacks are joined together by means of a joining so that the last fold of material in the existing stack is joined to the first fold of material in the spare stack.
The lower horizontal platform is provided at a bottom of the dispenser and the dispenser is oriented so that the weight of the stack rests on the lower horizontal platform. At an upper part of the dispenser, there is provided a convex or rounded shape member that supports and allows movement of a leading portion of the pre-cut accordion pleated web material from a top of the stack to a dispensing opening positioned at a bottom part of the dispenser. The dispenser is configured so that the weight of the stack does not bare on the leading portion of web material that is being dispensed through the dispensing opening, and thus can be considered a dispenser in which upward dispensing of the web material is enabled. This can be advantageous because the web material being dispensed is not loaded on by the weight of the stack and thus there is less chance of unintended product tearing. Further, in prior art dispensers in which the weight of the stack is placed on the web being dispensed, there is a greater chance of a user grasping a plurality of sheet products when only one is intended because the stack becomes increasingly compressed at the bottom under the weight of the remainder of the stack on top of it.
While the upwards dispensing operation of US 2011/0101020 A1, and other upwards dispensing dispensers (such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,516,711 and WO 2006/071148 A1) may be desirable for the reasons given above, there is a tendency for the web being dispensed to tear at a location along the dispensing path before the web passes the dispensing opening, which makes dispensing of a subsequent sheet product difficult, if not impossible, without opening a case of the dispenser. With a view to this difficulty, US 2011/0101020 A1 proposes cooperating protruding curved shapes for engaging on opposed major surfaces of the web being dispensed that are disposed around a dispensing opening. Despite these measures, a problem may well persist of a user not being presented with a subsequent sheet to grasp at the dispensing opening. It is an object of the present disclosure to address this issue in a simple and reliable manner.
Further, in US 2011/0101020 A1, when the container of the dispenser is full from the horizontal platform at the bottom of the container to an upper horizontal plate, the convex or rounded shape member for supporting and allowing movement of the web material does not engage or does not fully engage with the web material as the top of the stack will be positioned above the convex or rounded shape member, which thus does not fulfil its function during all container fill conditions of the dispenser. This may provide inconsistent dispensing performance. Embodiments of the present disclosure also serve to overcome this problem.